


Veins of Gold

by TheCarmineWanker



Category: Winx Club
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27959180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarmineWanker/pseuds/TheCarmineWanker
Summary: Soulmate AU
Relationships: Flora/Palladium (Winx Club)
Kudos: 9





	Veins of Gold

**Author's Note:**

> This is a soulmate AU in which the first instance of direct physical contact (skin on skin) plants a seed that then grows into a mark.

It was a bright, lovely spring morning in the latter half of Flora’s first year at Alfea. She was racing through the hallway, late for breakfast, when Professor Palladium stepped out into the corridor about two yards in front of her. Before she could stop, or even slow down, though, Flora slipped on a puddle of water that she hadn’t seen until it was much too late and, failing to regain her footing, started to fall backwards. Before she could really fall, however, Palladium was there to catch her with one hand supporting her by her mid-back. She decidedly ignored the jolt that ran through her as he did so and gratefully let him help her to her feet.

“Thank you, Professor, and I’m really sorry about that.” He looked more amused than upset, albeit slightly frazzled, as he waved her off.

“Just try to be more punctual next time and look where you’re going.”

“I promise!” With that, they parted as she hastened to breakfast while he went off in the other direction. Luckily for her, she was still able to get food when she reached the cafeteria before joining her friends.

“What took you so long? I thought you said you only had to brush your hair.” Predictably, it was Stella who accosted her before she could even sit down.

“Sorry, it was unusually knotted this morning and took an extra minute or two, and then I ran into Professor Palladium in the hallway- literally.”

“Really?”

“You’re lucky it wasn’t Griselda or you’d have detention. ‘No running in the hallways’, remember?” The others nodded in agreement with Musa’s statement.

“Wait, you don’t actually have detention, right?” Flora shook her head.

“Just a warning, thankfully.”

“Well that’s good. Now that you don’t have to worry about that, you can just focus on having a nice breakfast and a good day.” She couldn’t agree more and, taking Bloom’s advice, went back to savoring the juicy berries on her plate. Soon enough, however, it was time to head to class. Grabbing her books, Flora got up and started to leave when Stella stopped her.

“Did you get a tattoo or something?” Flora whirled around.

“No, of course not! Why do you ask?”

“There’s something on your back that looks like a weird tattoo.”

“Oh wow, she’s right.”

“It doesn’t really look like anything, though, like how a tattoo is supposed to.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I tried scanning it but I’m not getting any results other than that it’s not ink.”

Overwhelmed, confused, and worried, Flora broke off from the group and ran to the nearest bathroom, ignoring the promise she had just made not to run in the halls. She turned so her back was facing the mirror and twisted so she could look at the strip of exposed skin between her skirt and her crop top. Sure enough, right in the middle of that patch of her back was a small bundle of what looked like fine lines of pure gold. She tore herself away from the mirror and headed off to class, not wanting to be late, but her thoughts were completely occupied by the odd golden lines on her back.

. . .

By that evening, Flora knew that something really weird was happening to her. The lines that, that morning, were limited to a patch of skin the size of a ping pong ball had since expanded so they covered the majority of her back. With their expansion, though, she was now able to see that they weren’t just lines- they were forming the somewhat narrow trunk of a tree that was starting to branch out across her body. By the next morning, a trunk went down to the base of her spine and had begun to branch out across her neck and shoulder blades.

Meanwhile, the whole school was talking about Flora’s bizarre tattoo situation. Some were claiming she’d been cursed while others suggested that she had tried to give herself a tattoo but the spell got a bit weird. Some of the weirdest theories included Flora being claimed by the Tree of Life (whatever that meant) and it having something to do with Bloom’s dragon flame randomly splitting itself to partially reside in her.

As she sat through her first class, tuning out Wizgiz, Flora took the opportunity to figure out what she should do. Musa and Stella were of the opinion that she should leave it alone and see what it does until it stops spreading while Bloom thought she should consult Faragonda or a professor and Tecna suggested she take a look at the library. Flora weighed her options and decided that, when her class ended, she would stay for a minute after and ask Wizgiz about it and then take it from there. After all, he was the professor in charge of transformation magic and whatever magic this tattoo was could probably be classified as that. When class ended and the other students began to file out, she approached his desk to talk to him.

“Flora, what can I do for you?”

“Well, as everyone’s noticed, I have this . . . mark on my back. I was wondering if you had any ideas about what it could be.”

“I’m afraid not, and I’m guessing that you didn’t have a spell put on you if you’re asking that.”

“No, I didn’t.” She sighed.

“Well, you could always ask Faragonda or even Griffin, since it could be dark magic. Other than that, all I’ve got is that you could go poke around the library.”

“Thanks, Professor, I’ll keep that in mind.” She gave him a weak smile and went off to her next class.

. . .

Faragonda and Griffin had no idea either, and neither did the other professors. She came up empty in the library, too, and Faragonda told her that she had searched the magic archives as well and hadn’t been able to find anything there, either.

By the time the golden tree on her skin stopped growing, roots sprouted from the base of the tree out across her thighs with some going as low as her calves or even her ankles, branches spread across her back, shoulders, and arms, tapering down all the way to her hands and the very top of the tree coming up onto the base of her neck. Some of the branches curled over the tops of her shoulders and around her sides to poke out into her chest. She was glad that, if she had to have a giant mark covering most of her body, it was something she found beautiful.

Sometimes, when she wondered about what it was and where it came from, she’d find herself thinking crazy things. One thought she kept having in spite of how she kept trying to dismiss it was the theory she’d overheard once that it could be a soulmate mark. Everyone knew that, even in a world with magic, there was no such thing as soulmates, so Flora knew it was ridiculous but, in spite of that, the thought would occur to her sometimes and, before she could stop herself, she would remember the day she got it. She would recall how, when she slipped, Palladium caught her with his hand on her back, right around where that mark started, and the feeling that ran through her when he did so that meant absolutely nothing, of course.

She knew how stupid and impossible it was and she knew how something as silly as someone catching her when she slipped on some spilled water couldn’t possibly mean anything, never mind cause a golden tree to sprout and grow on her skin. The issue, though, was that she _liked_ him and very much wanted it to be possible. However, she was quite sure that, if it was a soulmate mark or whatever, that would mean he would have to have a matching one, which he didn’t. With how hers had spread, she knew that, if he had one like it, it would be visible even on the little skin he didn’t keep covered, especially since it would have started with the palm of his hand.

For a few years following the appearance of the mark, Flora tried her best to just focus on her studies and her plants and try to not think about the mark too much. Naturally, she failed miserably. Where she had very much intended to move on and forget her ‘silly little crush’, she managed to develop even deeper feelings for him instead that even being with Helia couldn’t distract from and, rather than forget about the mark, she continued to fixate on it. That was why, as messed up as she knew it was, she found herself grateful for the distraction that conflict with enemies like Darkar and Valtor provided her with.

. . .

The Winx’s latest conflict was the fight against Selina and Acheron and, by the time they defeated Acheron, it had caused a lot of damage and injury. Thankfully, there hadn’t been any casualties, but there were some rather serious injuries, some of which had been sustained by Palladium, who had been unconscious in the nurse’s office, under Ofelia’s care, for the day or so since the last battle ended. The Winx were helping out to clean up and fix the damage from the battle when Faragonda came to collect Flora.

“What is it, Headmistress?”

“There is something you need to see. Follow me.”

Confused, Flora did as told. She was even more perplexed when Faragonda brought her to the nurse’s office. However, once inside, everything made sense. There was Palladium, still unconscious, half dressed and wrapped up in bandages, with very familiar golden branches curling around his neck, arms, and hands. A soft gasp escaped her lips.

“He knew, as soon as he found out about your back, so he always made sure to keep it covered with a glamour so no one else would know, especially you.” Flora could feel tears streaming down her face.

“But why?”

“You were a student, and a first year, at that. Not only were you too young to feel like you were forced by fate to be with an adult man, but not covering it also could have started a scandal big enough to force him to resign. He told me all of this when it first happened, of course, and did ask if he should resign, which is why I’ve helped him keep it a secret, but, now, you are an adult and you deserve to know. He disagrees and fully intended to keep it a secret for the rest of his life, but he’s wrong and he has to realize that.” Flora nodded as she continued to stare at his unconscious body.

“Thank you, Headmistress.” She smiled gently.

“You’re welcome.”

“Can you let me know when-”

“The second he wakes up, you’ll be informed.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s get you back to your friends.”

. . .

When they next had time, Flora told the others about everything she learned from Faragonda.

“Oh. My. Gosh!”

“That’s crazy!”

“So does this mean you’re going to get together once he wakes up?” Flora lowered her gaze, blushing at Musa’s question.

“I don’t know. Even if we’re soulmates, that doesn’t guarantee he’ll want that. I know what Faragonda said about why he hid it but what if part of it is that he just doesn’t want me?”

“Are you kidding? He’d have to be insane. He’s probably been holding himself back the whole time, if anything.” Flora couldn’t help but smile at the rather blunt boost of self confidence from Stella.

“She’s right.” The others nodded in agreement with Aisha’s confirmation.

“Yeah, thanks, Stella. I’m still really nervous but I feel better now.”

“Good, you should. Otherwise, I’d have to accept failure and I so hate doing that.” Everyone laughed at her antics. Flora felt much more relaxed now, joking around with her friends, and she was sure that, when Palladium woke up, she would be ready to talk to him.

. . .

The next day, she got the message from Griselda. She hurried to the nurse’s office immediately. Her nerves grew with every step but she kept reminding herself of what Stella said so she could keep going. She got there quickly and, when she saw him, she froze. She noticed that he looked at least as nervous as she was and that did reassure her a bit.

“Um, hi. Griselda told me you were awake.” She fidgeted and focused her gaze on her shoes, deciding that was easier than looking at him. He sighed.

“Come here, have a seat.” She did as told. “I don’t know where to begin-”

“Do you like me? That’s the only thing I need to know.” The next few seconds felt like years until he nodded.

“Yes, I do.” A smile broke out across her face and she kissed him, tasting her tears of joy as she did so.

“When I first heard the theory about it having to do with soulmates, I wanted it to be true and I wanted it to be you.” He blushed at her confession.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but-” She cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“I understand and I really appreciate it. In spite of what I might’ve thought at the time, you were right to keep it secret.” He relaxed, relieved.

“I just didn’t - I don’t - want you to feel like you have to be with me. I wanted you to be able to have a normal life with someone else if you wanted to.”

“But I don’t want to. I want you.” He blushed.

“Well that’s good because it just so happens that I want you as well and I would, even without this mark.” She beamed at him.

“Good. Oh, and Palladium?”

“Yes?”

“Promise me you won’t ever hide it like that again.” He smiled.

“Never.” With that, she drew him in and sealed that promise with a kiss.


End file.
